After Mission, a striking show featured at La Comédie in 2015 and 2016, author David Van Reybrouck and actor Bruno Vanden Broecke give the floor to a soldier enrolled in 1992 in an international peacekeeping operation in Somalia – a soldier who, like his comrades, was not prepared for the mission he was entrusted with. The story addresses moral hazards but never turns into an indictment or judgement: a story about idealism and powerlessness and noble objectives that collapse into sordid practices.
Bruno Vanden Broecke received the Luis d’Or award for Best Dutch Actor for his performance.
“Because theatre can be an exercise in empathy. Because nowadays factions are formed in a Manichaean way in a few clicks on social networks. Para reasserts the importance of nuance. It is this nuance that made us want to meet up with this actor again. Based on an analysis of an ‘international peacekeeping mission’ in Somalia, the show is mostly a reflection on the inner turmoil of an individual in ‘History’. This is also what theatre is made for: a live exercise in otherness.” NKDM